Waterlogged Residents Near Lake City Look for Answers

LAKE CITY - More than two months after Tropical Storm Debby first flooded parts of North Central Florida, many residents are wondering if the storm has permanently changed their landscape.

Floodwater still cover some parts of Columbia County.

TV20's Trent Kelly shows us why some residents are still dealing with massive flooding.

Because water still covers his road, Nile Eddy has to take a new road built by the county in order to get to his house.

"I've never seen it this bad before...We've talked to neighbors who've lived here 50, 60, 70 years, and they've all said the same thing, it's never been like this before," says Eddy, a longtime Lake City resident.

Debby came ashore in late June, and she brought a lot of rain with her, flooding several roads around the area in the process.

Most of that water has receded; that is, in all but a few places. In the two months since Debby made landfall, Cypress Lake Road in Columbia County remains completely flooded, causing many residents to wonder why.

According to several experts, the problem lies right below many residents' feet.

Carlos Herd is the senior hydrologist with the Suwannee River Water Management District. He says the composition of the soil deep below the earth's surface may provide some answers.

"A lot of areas that we have in north Florida are remnant clay layers," Herd said. "It's like having a bathtub with no drain. The water can't pass through."

According to Herd, about 10,000 years ago, the area near Cypress Lake actually was a lake. The recent rainfall helped restore it to its original form; something many nearby residents wished they would have known sooner.

"If we get another slow moving storm, like a tropical depression, that's more than 6 or 7 inches of rain," Niles said. "It's going to happen again."

Columbia County's Public Works director Kevin Kirby does tell TV20 that the county has tried to do all it can to provide help to its residents, including the construction of that temporary road.